2006-09-18

Isometric Pixel Art - Simulating in SketchUp Tutorial

Pixel Art makes us smile, it provides a unique view on the world and is often used to produce pixel based towns. In general Pixel Art can be defined as anything drawn in the medium of computer pixels - these are usually created one pixel at a time at small scale to reduce the time taken to create the images.

The beauty of Pixel Art is the clean and unique image they can create, especially when moving to the isometric viewpoint. One such example is the Pixel Tower, pictured left, which demonstrates the type of image that Pixel Art creates.

Creating Pixel Art seems to be a slow process, mainly in MS Paint, drawing pixel by pixel. To understand the concept there is a great tutorial on Isometric Pixel Art by PixelFreak.

While we like Pixel Art we are not sure we have the patience to create it, especially as the majority of our work is 3D in the first place. To take a short cut, which we know will be frowned upon in the Pixel Art world, we have used SketchUp to recreate similar views. This post is out first take on the technique using the Euston Tower in London as a test.

SketchUp, as its name suggests allows simple shading and edge outlines to its 3D models. While it is not directly suited to photorealitic work, it is suited to simple Pixel Art creation. Creating Pixel Art in SketchUp is a simple 3 step process:

hey this is great, I was looking for something similar.I myself am not a digital artist person, I prefer drawing by hand on paper and stuff, but I do use the isometric perspective lately, to get a really global view of everything, and am really interested in isometric pixel art.I'm sorry for the people drawing "pixel by pixel", but it does look sort of better with this program ...

The issues in the comments (and my issue with the main post) is grouping 'isometric art' and 'pixel art' into one lump category. The method describes in the original post is for making 'isometric art' and NOT 'isometric pixel art'. Yes, a lot of pixel art was/is isometric, but not all. And, certainly, making something isometric does not make it pixel art.

Hopefully that clears up some misunderstanding for anyone still reading this post.

Here's my 4th step to the original tutorial to get that 'authentic' pixel art feel (sorry hardcore pixelartists)...

4) You can add a nice pixel-art style to your standard isometric 3D models by saving a jpeg of your 3D model (try screen-grab) and using Photoshop to apply a "Mosaic" effect from the Artistic Filter toolset.

I am a one-pixel at a time guy. I have found Sketchup is very useful as a starting point for building referance models, but to try to make a "finished" pixel art piece with SketchUp is out of the question for me. Sure, there are many short cuts one can take, but art is about more than the finished result; it is also about process. If you want to make a pixel art simulation, then do what you have to do. I you want to make pixel art, then gather your reference material (3D models, photos, sketches, etc.) and get to work pushing pixels.

Am I to take it you can't use lines or other shapes -which even MS Paint have- if you're creating 'real' pixel art. So if you cheat and use the line command, you're a sell-out, though no one can see you and they wouldn't know.

Actually, (as a comment on the last anonymous) classic game perspective (1:2 iso) can be achieved in SketchUp. All you have to do is:

1: draw a triangle along the red or green axis(with with and therefore surfaces) with the proportions of height: 8.55, base: 5, width: any value. 2:rotate it 45 degrees.3: then right click on the hypothenuse surface of the triangle and choose "align view"4: in the camera menu, switch "parallell projection" on.

Done.

As for pixel art, it's great to draw the rudimentary shapes in SketchUp and then cover the 2d-exported image with a layer of your own pixel pushing.